The premise: development of Electronic Flight Bags and Aircraft Interface Devices is moving much faster than development of fixed instrument panel systems, due (IMO) to the ability of an operator to customize the EFB, vs. waiting for A, B, BBD, E, etc., to upgrade instrument panel software. UTC (aka UTAS), Rockwell Collins, Jeppesen Sanderson, etc., are all pushing EFB capabilities into, e.g., maintenance, terrain mapping, real-time diagnostics, ground/air flight data updates, weather modeling.

http://www.aviationpros.com/article/120 ... leshooting
https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2017/03/1 ... ting-efbs/

I'm curious about user opinions about EFBs, preferences about GUIs and on-screen navigation, unsatisfied needs. In one of my former jobs I did systems design for av comm systems ... back when microprocessors were new in avionics. I'm now out of the systems business, but my interest remains high.

Our operator is a late adopter of EFB, but better late than never I suppose as I quite like it.

There is just so much information available at one's fingertips that it greatly improves situational awareness and efficiency in the cockpit. No more fumbling through manuals to find information or awkwardly flipping through pages of a Jepp manual to find a new approach chart after a runway change or diversion.

We don't have inflight connectivity, but when it does become mainstream, then the options expand even further, through the ability to upload real-time weather data along the route and other such wonders.

As you say, airliners' cockpits haven't evolved much in the last decades. Certification complexity and cross type certifications mean that a Cessna 182 pilot nowadays has access to a much better avionics suite than even an A350/B787 jockey. EFB has, in my opinion, been the best thing to happen in commercial cockpits since the advent of EFIS.

But if I had to pick flaws in it, I would say that your access to data is limited by having only one, relatively small, screen to display it on, whereas paper manuals allowed to have multiple pages of info handy. One area I find lacking is the display of enroute navigation maps. They are quite large with lots of information on them, and while the level of details displayed can be customized, a tablet's CPU still struggles a bit to refresh the display quickly enough when slewing/zooming and leads to a bit of frustration when needing to find specific data.

Additionally, many airlines favor a portable device approach, and these are often consumer grade devices such as iPads, Surfaces or other commercial tablets/laptops. I am sure these go through rigorous certification process before being approved for use in anger in cockpits by aviation authorities, but I have always wondered about reliability in the longer term.

These consumer electronic devices are really only built to last a handful of years of occasional use, not necessarily hours on end of daily usage. Lithium batteries tend to lose their ability to maintain a decent charge after several hundred charge cycles, and are often impossible to change without dismantling the device.

I am curious to know what airlines which have been using those for a few years now find the device turnover is, and what kind of deals with manufacturers they have in place for hardware renewal due to the relatively short life-cycle of these devices.

I was able to pair my company EFB with a homemade ADS-B receiver (google stratux) similar to the commercial Stratus unit which costs significantly more... It was interesting being able to pick up and decode all of the other airplane's 1090-ES signals around me in cruise flight. From the signals I could decode, I could derive the other airplane's squawk, registration, flight ID, their avionic's reported position, ground track, ground speed and barometric altitude. I was able to correlate a flight making a check-on or ride report and see where that flight was in relation to me.

The other interesting thing is being able to see all of the airport operations vehicles on the ground. I'm guessing the vehicles have transponders so that the tower can see them on their ground displays, so the device also picks up and decodes the airport operations vehicle's transponders and displays where all those airport vehicles are in relation to me.

The airline issues a new iPad about every three to four years and so we are on the second iPad. I find my iPad/EFB lasts an entire 4 day trip without charging. It's just not on very much when you use it strictly for work. Other guys use their EFB for personal use and so they're always having them plugged in on the aircraft.

The worst app on the EFB is the Jeppesen app it is totally user-unfriendly and a resource hog - it's the laggiest app in the whole bunch. The people who designed the UI for the Jepp app definitely are not pilots. The UI covers critical parts of the chart you need to access/view/read and sometimes you just can't see what's on the chart because the UI is in the way and you can't remove the UI. Trying to get another approach chart after getting a runway change is a chore with they way they have the app display/organize the charts. They tried to put so much functionality into the app that none of it works very well even on the latest iPad Pro.

In the end the contingency plan in the event of loss of EFB functionality is to use paper manuals and charts. All the EFB did was lighten the load for the pilots so that we're not carrying 60 pounds of paper everywhere. The library of manuals and charts on the airplane still remains. The charts still stay wrapped up in their cellophane wrapper unopened like it was before the EFB were issued to the pilots. But the aircraft's manuals appear to get used regularly, i.e. they don't look brand new and unused like the charts wrapped in cellophane, and when I need to refer to a manual, I prefer to use the paper one in the airplane.

As far as using pilot EFBs to access maintenance information. I don't see that happening to be honest. I don't think airlines want pilots tinkering around with maintenance stuff. I can see equipping mechanics with iPads/tablets to access maintenance information. Just give the pilot basic functionality to view and make entries in the "digital" aircraft logbook. but getting access to maintenance functions? like the ADS-B information at the beginning of my posts - it's nice gee-whiz stuff to know. but the information is extraneous information that doesn't help the pilot operate the aircraft.

The biggest economic impact I have seen when it comes to delays. I was at one company that refused to implement EFBs fully, so the crews still had to do loads of paperwork before each flight. A last minute change (which we had to take as per contractual terms) over a certain amount would require a full redo of the entire paperwork, easily costing 20-30 minutes. This happened quite often. At my next employer we did almost the same job under the same conditions, just with all the paperwork on the EFBs. Doing a change, regardless of how large, would take barely 10 seconds.

As for navigation applications such as Jeppesen Jeppview, I prefer having the additional information as an aid during navigation. Having the ownship view on the taxi/departure/approach plates helps increase situational awareness by magnitudes and reduces errors such as runway incursions, diversions etc. Using the aircrafts own instruments for navigation always takes precedence, but using the EFB as an aid helps you a lot.

IMHO, I grew up in the digital age. I have never done paperwork by hand before, and I absolutely despise it. It's a complete waste the time and talent of pilots by wasting more time than necessary on a non-flying task. Flying earns the company money, not the paperwork. I doubt anybody really enjoys it either.

Francoflier wrote:

But if I had to pick flaws in it, I would say that your access to data is limited by having only one, relatively small, screen to display it on, whereas paper manuals allowed to have multiple pages of info handy. One area I find lacking is the display of enroute navigation maps. They are quite large with lots of information on them, and while the level of details displayed can be customized, a tablet's CPU still struggles a bit to refresh the display quickly enough when slewing/zooming and leads to a bit of frustration when needing to find specific data.

I agree with those points too. Also, browsing through a manual is for some reason on thing I have yet to see executed in a good manner. Some are downright horrible at it.

What great, detailed replies. IMO, the ability to drive an outboard display, and "tablet grade CPUs", are the two biggest weaknesses in current EFBs. The outboard display would allow the user to move the Jepp GUI away from the displayed chart. The display panels on the instrument panel are "OEM-defined multifunction" (i.e., twist the selector knob), but multiple EFB display panels would be user-defined multifunction (within the limits of what the operator installs on the EFB).

The CPU issue is easy to solve... the operator needs to buy EFBs with higher end CPUs... i7-8550U instead of Gemini Lake or M3-7Y30.

A homemade ADS-B receiver... terrific. More fun than the airline monthly mag. Learning about turbulence immediately from planes ahead in queue transcon, TATL, or TPAC... no lag.

How's this for an idea. As the ceiling of the cockpit becomes less crowded, dedicate room for a hi-res, 30" panel as an outboard EFB display directly above the front windows. DisplayPort 2 can daisychain multiple displays, so each pilot could have two elbow displays, and an overhead display. Think about an ownship display on taxiways and gates on the overhead panel (esp. showing ADS-B from ground vehicles and other a/c). The panel would be big enough to have multiple windows, and could be a failover for dead panels elsewhere. Put weather radar full screen on the overhead, overlaid with ownship on an enroute chart, when avoiding storm cells.

Another possible use for the outboard displays is viewing a security cam at the pax cabin side of the cockpit door, or other cams... boarding doors, cargo doors, multispectral of leading edges during icing conditions, multispectral from runway to detect ice on runway, etc.

WPvsMW wrote:

How's this for an idea...

I like the concept, but the ceiling doesn't sound like the nicest position. When taxiing, I would be more inclined to look out of the windows and down on the instruments and checklists. The position of the EFB mount just below the side window is pretty good to gain an overview. IMHO, if a taxi plate could be displayed on a head-up-display, that would be useful. The -600 ATR uses the central EFD screen for the traditional engine instruments, but also displays the checklists. Expanding on that idea, why not use the rest of the displays for more relevant information when they aren't needed? I don't need the navigation display during taxi, it could show the taxi chart instead. While in cruise, the Jeppesen en-route navigation chart display offers better information than the basic nav display does.

Those fancy transparent screens that are coming onto the market could be interesting as well. Assuming the technology gets good enough, I could imagine that you could cover the side windows with a screen and display limited information. Not too much, that would block the view. This company started promoting a smart-glass based aide about 3 years ago. While I think it looks a bit sloppy (too much information blocking out your view), there are some interesting concepts that could be worked on: https://glass.aero/#features